Ballenstedt is a town in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Saxony-Anhalt is a state of Germany.
Today it is a schloss, but originally the Oberhof was a fortified town castle (Stadtburg), that had been enfeoffed to the family of its builders, the lords of Stammern since its construction in the 16th century. The gravestones and epitaphs of the family from the 16th century are now in Ballenstedt's St. Nicholas' Church.
Schloss, formerly written Schloß, is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace or manor house. In the United Kingdom, it would be known as a stately home or country house.
The House of Stammern, also Stammer, was an ancient, knightly, Saxon, aristocratic family.
An epitaph is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves before their death, while others are chosen by those responsible for the burial. An epitaph may be written in prose or in poem verse; poets have been known to compose their own epitaphs prior to their death, as did William Shakespeare.
In the interior of the Late Gothic, three-winged building the groin vaults on the ground floor, dating to the time of the original construction, have been preserved. The connecting wing between the west and east wings was added in the 19th century.
Gothic architecture is a style that flourished in Europe during the High and Late Middle Ages. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. Originating in 12th-century France, it was widely used, especially for cathedrals and churches, until the 16th century.
A groin vault or groined vault is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. The word "groin" refers to the edge between the intersecting vaults. Sometimes the arches of groin vaults are pointed instead of round. In comparison with a barrel vault, a groin vault provides good economies of material and labour. The thrust is concentrated along the groins or arrises, so the vault need only be abutted at its four corners.
In 1869, Armgard of Alvensleben from the House of Neugattersleben purchased the property, laid out the castle grounds covering 15,000m² and bequeathed the Oberhof in 1920 to the Alvensleben Family Foundation.
Since 1948 a children's day care centre has been housed in the former castle. Today it is once again owned by the von Alvensleben family.
The House of Alvensleben is a Low German aristocratic family of the Altmark region, whose earliest known member is Wichard de Alvensleve first mentioned in 1163 as a ministerialis of the Bishopric of Halberstadt. The family name derives from Alvensleben Castle.
The illustration is a 1937 wash drawing by the Dutch artist, Anco Wigboldus, who portrays the condition of the Oberhof and its surroundings after the First World War in an idealised way.
Sources
Udo von Alvensleben-Wittenmoor: Alvenslebensche Burgen und Landsitze. Dortmund 1960.
Anco Wigboldus: Burgen, Schlösser und Gärten. Deutsche Burgenvereinigung, Marksburg über Braubach/Rhein 1974, p. 72–73 (Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Burgenvereinigung. Vol. 8).
Tecklenburg is a town in the district of Steinfurt, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Castle chapels in European architecture are chapels that were built within a castle. They fulfil the religious requirements of the castle lord and his retinue, sometimes also served as a burial site. Because the construction of such church edifices was expensive for the lord of the castle, separate chapels are not found at every seat of the nobility. Often, a secondary room furnished with an altar had to suffice.
Neugattersleben is a village and a former municipality in the district Salzlandkreis, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Nienburg.
Amlishagen Castle is a castle near the village of Amlishagen, which is a section of the town of Gerabronn, in the Schwäbisch Hall District of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Jaunpils Castle is a castle in the historical region of Zemgale, in Latvia. More of a manor house than properly a fortified castle, it has now been converted into a hotel.
A hill castle is a castle built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German Höhenburg used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles are thus distinguished from lowland castles (Niederungsburgen).
The Schochwitz castle, located in Schochwitz, Germany was built in the 12th century. Today it serves as a hotel.
Friedensburg Castle is an early 16th-century castle overlooking the valley of the Sormitz at Leutenberg in southeast Thuringia, Germany. It was formerly the residence of the Counts of Schwarzburg-Leutenberg and today is a dermatological medical facility.
Ludger Fischer is a German historian on building history, reviewer of contemporary architecture and political scientist.
Dankwarderode Castle on the Burgplatz in Braunschweig (Brunswick) is a Saxon lowland castle. It was the residence of the Brunswick dukes for centuries and, today, is part of the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum.
Calvörde Castle is located in Calvörde in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Its existence was first recorded in the late 13th century. In the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period it was frequently fought over due to its location between the territories of Brandenburg, Magdeburg and Brunswick.
Grünenberg was a medieval Swiss noble family. The family was active from the middle of the 12th century until the 15th century in the Swiss Plateau, mostly in the Bernese Oberaargau. The family also had branches that owned land in Alsace and in southern Bavaria, especially in the Markgräflerland and in Breisgau. About one hundred members of the family are known today. The family name comes from Grünenberg Castle in Melchnau in the Canton of Bern.
Herten Castle is a moated castle situated in the town of Herten in the administrative district of Recklinghausen in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. It is located within an old English landscape garden and its first mentioning dates back to 1376. In 1962, the main castle building was declared a cultural heritage monument.
A Ganerbschaft, according to old German inheritance law, was a joint family estate, mainly land, over which the co-heirs (Ganerben) only had rights in common. In modern German legal parlance it corresponds to a "community of joint ownership".
Lindheim Castle is a former medieval castle in Lindheim, in the municipality of Altenstadt, Wetteraukreis county, in the German state of Hesse. In the Middle Agess the castle became a large joint inheritance or Ganerbschaft of lesser noble families, who were an important local power in the eastern Wetterau. In 1697, stately home, Schloss Lindheim, was built. Only a few remnants of both buildings have survived today.
Hermann Korb was a German architect who worked mainly in the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
The Old Castle is a former electoral water castle in the German city of Koblenz, dating to the 13th century. The lowland castle is located in Koblenz's old town on the banks of the Moselle near the Baldwin Bridge. Only the Burghaus has survived; today it houses the city archives.
Schloss Kunreuth is situated on the northwestern edge of the eponymous village of Kunreuth which is part of the collective municipality of Gosberg in the county of Forchheim, in the province of Upper Franconia in the south German state of Bavaria.
Hiltpoltstein Castle was originally a high mediaeval aristocratic castle dating to the 11th or 12th century. It stands in the centre of the market village of Markt Hiltpoltstein in the Upper Franconian county of Forchheim in the south German state of Bavaria. Its present appearance as a triple-winged building goes back to renovations carried out at the end of the 16th century.
Bodo Heinrich Justus Ebhardt (January 5, 1865, Bremen–February 13, 1945 at Marksburg near Braubach was a German architect, architectural historian, castle explorer, and founder and longtime president of the German Castles Association.
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